Amethyst's POV
Just as Winifred was about to prick King Reed's finger the invasion alarms sound. I look at Lottie and she looks thrilled. I wonder if she has anything to do with it. She's always been way more confident about escaping here than any other she-wolf after their first week. Most would give up hope after being in this hell hole for a week. As I am thinking this the Rogue King jumps into action, commanding all the men in the room to prepare for a fight.
"You get the women and children to the back room and out of our way." King Reed barks at me. "Protect my bride or I will kill you myself, I don't care if you are my granddaughter or not, betray me and you will be begging for death by the end of the night."
I hold back my tongue but do what he says. As much as I want to fight with those who are invading right now I can't with this damned collar around my neck.
'We need to find a way to take it off.' Summer says.
'We've tried since they put it on us.' I comment. 'We need a witch or some type of magic weapon to remove it and I highly doubt our grandfather is naive enough to allow something like that to lie around and we know Winifred is on his side so she won't help.'
As we are all moved to the back of the hall, Lottie runs up to me grabs my hand and pulls me to a corner.
"Do you trust me?" She asks me with conviction.
"Yes." I respond just as confidently.
"Good, we are getting out of here." She proclaims.
"What? How?" I ask.
"The attack has to be by my pack and our allies. Your family has been looking for you, your Alpha went to the grand council and they have been searching for you and all the missing she-wolves. My pack was one of the few searching. On one of my team's scouting missions we got word that the Rogue King was sending men to invade a rogue community to kidnap women, with the help of a Luna who happens to be a witch we put a tracking spell on me and I went undercover as a rogue. As soon as I was brought here I activated the spell and have just been biding my time for the rescue to happen."
"Oh my goddess! That's amazing!" I exclaim. "What are we are going to do about the women and children? How are we going to get past the guards outside and Winifred?"
"Leave that to me, I may look and smell like an omega but that was another part of Luna Fae's spell, I'm actually an alpha female and a gamma for my brother. I can take them out no problem." Lottie tells me.
I'm stunned to know she's an alpha. I suspected she wasn't an omega like me she held herself differently than most omegas so I had assumed she was of higher rank, but an alpha, that was more surprising. No wonder she refused to submit to anyone. I nod my head, letting her know I'm on board with whatever her plan is.
We get all the females and their pups to one side of the room, letting them hunker down for safety. More than half of the she-wolves are the Rogue King's brides and breeders so we know they will have no problem with trying to escape. The rest we aren't completely sure, some are fated mates to the warriors and some are mates to King Reed's leadership and we aren't sure if they were forced into mate bonds or if they willingly chose to be mates with those awful men.
"Okay, Now that all the she-wolves and their pups are safe in the room, I am going to see if I can scope a route out of here. Once I do, I will come right back here and get you guys out of here." Lottie tells me. "Stay here and keep an eye out. I promise I will be back." She runs towards the front doors where there's two warriors standing guard. She then rips the skirt of her dress to give her more mobility and uses it to tie the handles shut from the inside. It won't hold long but it could give us a few minutes to get out the back. As she heads towards the back door, Winifred walks through.
"Well what do we have here? Is the King's new bride trying to get away? I hate to break it to you sweetheart but I will not let that happen." Winifred mocks.
"I'd like to see you try and stop me." Lottie taunts back.
Winifred starts to move her hands around in circles looking like Elizabeth Olsen from Avengers: Age of Ultron wielding her powers. She then shoots a ball of power towards Lottie who dodges it like it's second nature. She then slides on her knees landing in a superhero pose, she gets up quickly and jumps up over the alter landing a kick to Winifred's stomach knocking the wind out of her. As Lottie falls backwards towards the floor she use the momentum to spring back up to her feet, grabs Winifred around the neck and breaks it. As soon as Winifred hits the ground we hear a loud roar in the distance and I start to feel a strength I haven't felt in months.
'Looks like killing the witch broke her spells, I'm still a little weak but I can feel my strength coming back, we may be able to shift in about a half hour.' Summer celebrates.
'Fantastic!' I celebrate with her. 'Let's get this damn collar off!' I pull the colloquial away from my neck and let it fall to the ground.
"Amethyst, I'm leaving now," Lottie reiterates her plan, "since I broke the witch's spell get the collars off everyone and I will be back."
She rushes out the back and I do as she says. As I am helping the she-wolves remove the collars I ask about their wolves. Most of them have been prisoners for so long they can barely feel their wolves and it makes me and Summer angry to hear that. The ones that can feel them say they will take days to be able to fully heal and shift again. I then ask if any of them want to stay. The she wolves that are fated to warriors say they do, that they love their mates even if they have done horrible deeds at the behest of the king but they won't stand in the way of anyone that wants to escape. They all know the horrors that most of the she-wolves have endured and wouldn't wish it on anyone.
It's about an hour later when Lottie returns, her white dress is now stained with blood, her hair is no longer perfect but she somehow still manages to look like one sexy badass. She has wolves that smell like they are part of a pack with her and relief washes over all of us, especially the ones who want to escape. So far none of the mated she wolves have felt the teether break though some have felt the physical pain of their mates being hurt. The ones who are fated feel the pain more intensely, I and some of the others have tried our best to comfort them through it. It is definitely one of the hardest parts about wars and battles like this one. Mild combat training is nothing compared to this, so I am told. They said they will usually feel a slight ache or pinch in the area a mate is stuck but this, this feels almost as if they were the ones taking the blows. My heart aches for them and I hope for their sakes it ends quickly.
"How many she-wolves are mated?" One of the burly wolves asks us when he shifts into his human form with absolutely no shame.
All the females except me and the breeders raise their hands with caution.
"Well shit that's a lot more than I expected." The other wolf says, coming into the room after pulling pants on outside.
"If I may," I begin, "among us we have 10 she-wolves that are fated mates of some of the warriors, 5 she-wolves who are forced chosen mates of the Rogue King's leadership and about 15 wives of the king, except for me, the rest are the kings personal breeders."
"Is that so, and who are you and what was your purpose if you weren't here to please like the rest?" the first warrior purrs at me while looking me up and down with lust in his eyes.
"She's my friend, and the one and only Amethyst Grey. The reason our packs were informed of the Rogue King's deeds. You will show her and the rest of these females respect. They have had enough physical, mental and sexual abuse to last them a lifetime and don't need your unwanted attention. I can't believe your Alpha allowed you to be apart of a rescue of this nature if you can't even see that flirting and lusting over the females would be inappropriate." Lottie growls out.
"Sorry Gamma Crimson." The warrior sheepishly responds. "I forgot myself and why we were here. It's not everyday I am in the company of such a beauty." He then turns to me, "My apologies Miss Grey, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."
"You are dismissed warrior, and I will be bringing up your behavior to your alpha once we get everyone to safety." Lottie sneers.
The warrior submits and heads outside. Meanwhile there's a few female warriors assessing the she-wolves and pups trying to determine how to get us all out of here.
"The battle is still underway and we cleared a path to get those who want to leave out." Lottie informs me. "It sounds like 10 are staying behind?"
"Yes, they are happy with their mates and want to stay." I whisper. "I'm concerned if they stay and their mates don't survive what will happen to them."
"We can't force them to leave with us. If they want to stay that's on them. All we can do is pray to the moon goddess protects them and their mates and they can be free from Reed's rule. I know top priority will be to take him out."
I nod. We get all the wolves wanting to leave ready. Lottie found about 8 warriors to help move us out. We will all leave in smaller groups. Each group is split to have four she-wolves and their pups and two warriors. The last group won't have warriors but have me and Lottie. I may not be a warrior but I am glad my dad taught me how to fight so I am not completely useless and with Lottie being an Alpha female she is a lot stronger than the warriors so our group is in good hands.